Meeting Paul Smith

Meeting Paul Smith

The now 64 years old iconic designer, dazzling in one of his own suits, takes Vogue.it to his own studio where one can’t help but feel immediately overwhelmed by the amount of objects populating the space. Bicycles, snowboards, Japanese toys, dolls, miniature trains, cuckoo clocks, antiquities, collectibles and gadgets from all decades, paintings, pictures, books… like a kid in a candy shop who wants to touch and play with everything Sir Smith tells us the story behind each one of them.

The playful designer shares with our cameras the amusing story about a secret admirer that for the past 20 years has been sending him all sort of funny things including a surfboard, football, broom, stepladders, sledge, watering can, fishing rod, piece of wood and many more.

Smith’s employees look on with affection as the lively designer bounces around the building showing us the wonders of his empire. Sir Smith, a passionate sportsman and avid art collector amongst other things, confides he has a thing for ‘day trips’. He would go to his office in Delhi, to the Great Wall of China or Vietnam just for the day. He once took a day trip that took him in Moscow in the morning, St Petersburg in the afternoon and New York at night.

Paul Smith has always been something a bit special but behind the jokey personality, the designer is an astute businessman. The humble, sincere and hugely inspiring man has in fact fashioned a global clothing empire from scratch, building it out of hard work, starting in a small commercial space in Nottingham city centre. A few decades later his clothes and shops are available the world over. And he certainly is still having a hell of a time!